Success Stories
The Strong Towns Movement is making an impact across the nation.
From Fate, Texas, to Indianapolis, Indiana, Strong Towns advocates are actively shaping local decisions and creating positive change in cities, towns and neighborhoods nationwide. Here are some recent successes…
Like so many places, Muskegon, MI, has a shortage of housing and a surplus of vacant lots. That’s why it’s enacted a program that allows it to redevelop those lots into affordable housing—at a low risk to the city.
Like many U.S. towns, Maumee, OH, has a state highway that cuts through their Uptown. For decades, it’s been known as a dangerous road…but no longer: the city is taking back its streets and making them places for people, not cars.
Norfolk, NE, knows that people are the indicator species of a successful place, and it’s doing all it can to make its public spaces friendly to its people.
In 2015, Edmonton, a city of 1 million situated in the Canadian Prairies of Alberta, was the first city in the country to adopt Vision Zero—and they’ve taken that adoption seriously.
Local activists in Selma, NC, started small, but they’ve grown into a coalition of citizens, civic groups, and city leaders striving to improve housing, transportation, and the local economy.
In Capitola, California, residents erupted in protest after Debra Towne, a beloved local senior, was hit and killed walking across a dangerous stroad. And unlike in so many other places, the city actually responded.
When Chattanooga’s Local Conversation learned of a crash that took the lives of a mother and child and severely injured the father, the group channeled their mourning into mobilization.
In what’s anticipated to be a landslide, the people of Los Angeles just voted in favor of walking, biking, and transit.
Tony Jordan of the Parking Reform Network and Chris Meyer, legislative assistant to Senator Omar Fateh, talk all things parking reform on this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast.
Like so many other places, the city of Kalamazoo, MI, has been facing a cascade of housing challenges. Here’s how they’re tackling them using pre-approved housing plans.
Searching for a place where people work together and things actually get done? Look no further than Jasper, IN, where a gorgeous downtown renovation serves as an example of a place that’s “built by many hands.”
Minnesota legislators have introduced a bill that would eliminate minimum parking mandates statewide—and Strong Towns was there to cheer them on.
Sacramento City Council has unanimously approved a set of changes that will allow the California capital to meet its housing demands.
Local advocates in Langley, BC, are starting the conversations their city needs to hear if it wants to undo decades of investing in the Suburban Experiment.
Spokane, WA, has finalized its year-long effort to legalize more housing choices across the city—and their new code is something other cities should be paying attention to.
The battle against highway expansions can be one of the toughest fights an advocate will ever come up against. But as this Florida-based Local Conversations group has shown, persistence will eventually pay off.
Alexandria, VA, one of the U.S.’s earliest settled cities, has just eliminated single-family zoning.
Traffic-calming measures can often raise concerns for emergency responders. Here’s how Jersey City—the city that’s famously achieved zero traffic deaths—cooperated with its emergency responders to make streets safer for everyone.
Sixty letters of opposition from local advocates in Grand Rapids, MI, halted an irreversible decision: the teardown of five downtown buildings for surface parking lots.
If you’re taking action to make your community more financially resilient, we need you as part of this movement.
Has Strong Towns made an impact in your community?
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Everyone has an entry point on their journey to taking action for their place. For Bernice Radle, it was witnessing the steady depopulation of Buffalo, NY, and seeing a landscape of unused, unloved buildings headed for the wrecking ball.